Modern computing devices are comprised of numerous electronic components such as CPUs, GPUs, RAM, etc. As computing devices grow more powerful (e.g., a multi-node server), more heat is generated by these electronic components. Excessive heat in a computing device can cause physical damage to the electronic components and lead to data loss as well as system failures.
Cooling fans are widely utilized to remove heat from computing devices by actively exhausting accumulated hot air, thus maintaining an acceptable temperature for system operation. Effective control of the cooling fan speed is required to keep the internal temperature within a predetermined range. For example, an insufficiently low fan speed results in poor air circulation and overheating of the computing device; conversely, an unnecessarily high fan speed causes overcooling of the device and a waste of energy.